It's your personal information. Here's how to take back control!

Today, there are thousands of companies that track your activity on and offline. Nearly every time you use your smartphone or the internet, and sometimes, even when you aren't, companies track and make money off your personal information.

Vote Yes on the California Consumer Privacy Act

Your personal information is being sold to businesses you don’t even know exist. The California Consumer Privacy Act will empower you to take back control of your personal information.

Here's how to demand your right to privacy:

Vote YES on the California Consumer Privacy Actthis November! This ballot measure says: 1) You have the right to tell a business not to share or sell your personal information, 2) You have the right to know what personal information businesses are collecting about you and to whom your data is being sold or disclosed, 3) You have the right to protections against businesses who do not uphold the value of your privacy.

Donate! Facebook, Google, Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Microsoft & Uber have contributed almost $2M to a PAC set up to oppose us, and we have heard that there is a $100 million campaign lined up against this measure. Help us fight these corporations for our right to privacy by donating. We truly appreciate your support!

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Block Trackers.

Many websites and apps have tracking scripts that collect your data for advertising, analytics, and marketing purposes. These scripts are commonly referred to as “trackers” and typically work by placing cookies on your browser.

You can block internet trackers by adding an extension to your web browser.

Service providers like Disconnect.me can be added as an extension to your web browser to block tracking requests from connecting to your devices. Blocking trackers helps you browse smarter, protect your data, and can make your internet faster, while extending device battery life and saving you bandwidth.

Browse Anonymously.

When you open a web page, your IP Address, as well as other information, becomes available to the server that hosts the website you’re visiting. This information may be sold to third-party companies and used to track you.

Here are a couple ways to browse anonymously:

Install a well-reviewed, trusted VPN (virtual private network). This will allow you to secure your internet connection through an encrypted tunnel to locations around the world. A good VPN will hide your real IP address from websites, bypass internet censorship, and allow you to experience the internet as people in other countries experience it. Not all VPNs are trustworthy, but you can see how various VPNs stack up here.

Research web browsers that prioritize protecting your privacy, while still showing you the best results. DuckDuckGo, for example, prides itself on being a search engine that protects your privacy and shows you the best results.

Protect your DNS.

DNS, short for Domain Naming System, is the internet's directory. When you open an app, send an email, or when you do nearly anything else you do on the internet, the first thing your device does is ask the directory where to find it.

Here's one way to protect your DNS:

Check out https://1.1.1.1 and consider installing a service like this on your devices. 1.1.1.1 was built by CloudFlare and APNIC to be the internet’s fastest DNS directory and will never log your IP address.

Opt-out of Targeted Advertising.

It should be very easy for you to find out what personal information corporations are collecting about you, and then it should be just as easy to opt-out of having any corporation sell your personal information. Sadly, right now it is not easy, and it is always confusing.

Here's how to opt-out of targeted advertising:

Go to: optout.aboutads.info. To the best of our knowledge, this link is currently the state of the art technology that allows you to opt-out of having your online activity tracked and sold.

Protect Your Passwords.

Hopefully, you already know to never to use passwords like, “Password” or “123456”! But many people don’t know it is bad practice to use the same password on multiple sites. If one site gets hacked, the hacker may try to log in to other services with the same credentials. Worse still, many use bad practices like text messaging or even emailing passwords to friends, family, and co-workers.

One way to protect your passwords:

Use a service like LastPass or 1Password for password management services that can store encrypted passwords in private accounts and can be easily shared in a secure way with other users.

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These are just some of the techniques that you can use to browse the web more securely. We encourage you to head over to your favorite search engine and do further research!

What does the California Consumer Privacy Act do?

1

Gives You Ownership

Protect your right to tell a business not to share or sell your personal information.

INVEST IN THE FUTURE OF PRIVACY

READ THE INITIATIVE

If you’ve come to our site from a search engine like Google or a social platform like Facebook, your information is possibly being collected, tracked, and shared by them. Learn more and/or opt-out of some sharing on CAPrivacy.org.

This website is intended for the sole use of United States citizens and permanent residents.

Paid for by Californians for Consumer Privacy. Committee major funding by Alastair Mactaggart.